Who are the Russian "volunteers" serving with pro-Russian rebel forces in eastern Ukraine? The BBC's Olga Ivshina obtained a rare interview with a Russian special forces soldier, who described the key role played by Russian troops in recent fighting.

Recovering from concussion, he spoke to the BBC via Skype from St Petersburg.

Dmitry Sapozhnikov joined the rebel "Donetsk People's Republic (DPR)" forces last October, but he was wounded in heavy fighting when the Russian-backed rebels pushed Ukrainian troops out of Debaltseve in late February.

Russian officials consistently deny that soldiers like him are fighting in eastern Ukraine.

But Dmitry said "all operations, especially large-scale ones, are led by Russian officers, by Russian generals".

"They develop plans together with our commanders. And then we fulfil the orders."

Tank reinforcements

A shaky ceasefire is generally holding, despite many violations. The strategic town of Debaltseve fell to the rebels soon after the ceasefire was signed.

The DPR says Dmitry's special forces unit of Russian "volunteers" fought on the frontline in the battle for Debaltseve.

On 9 February his unit managed to take control of a main road, cutting Ukrainian forces off from their hinterland. The rebels were unable to hold the road for long, Dmitry explained.

"But then Russian tanks arrived. This was a tank unit from Buryatia [a region in far-off Siberia]. Thanks to their help and their armour we managed to take Debaltseve."

Dmitry had served earlier as a conscript in the Russian interior ministry forces. He said most of his duties consisted of guarding transport infrastructure in St Petersburg.

But after joining the rebels in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region he was assigned to special forces duties. He had performed well at a training camp there.

Later on, he said, a Russian who had served in the French Foreign Legion trained them.

Crimea deception

Russian regular units have been crucial at difficult moments for the rebels, when operations required disciplined and well-trained troops, Dmitry explained.

Western leaders, the Ukrainian government and Nato say there is clear evidence of Russian military involvement in the fighting.

According to US Lt Gen Ben Hodges, a senior commander in Europe, nearly 12,000 Russian troops are operating inside Ukraine.

Russia has rejected those allegations. "These figures, which are plucked out of the air, of course demoralise and disorientate the international community," said Russian foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich.

Dmitry recalled that a year ago Russia had also denied using its armed forces to seize control of Crimea.

But recently Russian state TV showed a documentary in which President Vladimir Putin admitted to planning the annexation of Crimea from the start - well before Russian and local paramilitary forces took control.

"I think it will be the same here, in Donbas. First they deny it, but then they will admit it," Dmitry said.

'Defending Russians'

He suspects that there is a "secret agreement", whereby "the West turns a blind eye to Russian involvement and Russia pretends it doesn't notice American and European soldiers operating on the Ukrainian side".

Some 35 British military personnel have started training Ukrainian soldiers in the southern city of Mykolaiv and will spend about two months in the country. The UK is providing some non-lethal equipment and the training focuses on medical aid and defensive tactics. It will not change the military balance of the opposing sides.

More than 6,000 people have died since fighting erupted in Ukraine last April, the UN estimates - but it believes the real figure could be considerably higher.

Dmitry says the fighting in eastern Ukraine has completely changed his understanding of life. Now he is wondering whether to return. He is still sure he did the right thing, defending "the interests of the Russian-speaking population and Russians in Donbas".

That is a view shared by many Russians, though the experiences of people like Dmitry have prompted searching questions about the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

(BBC News)

Iraqi Militiamen Plan To Travel To Yemen To Battle U.S.-Backed Coalition

BAGHDAD -- Iran-backed Shiite militiamen in Iraq say they're ready to take up arms in a country most of them have never been to: Yemen.

“We defeated ISIS in Syria, we’re defeating ISIS in Iraq, and we’ll defeat them in Yemen,” Abu Kumael, a volunteer fighter with the powerful Iran-supported Shiite militia known as the Peace Brigades, told The WorldPost Monday. “We’re not just talking. We’re physically ready to go and fight.”

In Iraq, the militias are working on the same side as U.S. forces against the self-declared Islamic State. But once the militiamen get to Yemen, they'll be fighting not for the U.S., but against the Americans -- which means that the U.S. will be battling the same forces, and in some cases the very same men, that ISIS is taking on in Iraq.

A young member of the Iran-backed Shiite militia known as the Badr Organization looks up at a drone in the sky over Tikrit on March 26.

Last week, a Saudi-led alliance began bombing Yemen’s Houthi rebels -- airstrikes that were supported with U.S. logistics and intelligence. The rebels have largely driven Yemen's government from power. The government had been backed by the U.S. because of its willingness to battle militant extremists, and to allow the U.S. to do the same within its borders. It also had the strong backing of Saudi Arabia and other Gulf nations that see Shiite Iran as their true enemy.

The Shiite Iraqis see the unfolding events in the Arabian Peninsula as an extension of their own fight in Iraq and Syria. It’s a sectarian war, they say, in which they see no choice but to defend the Houthis, adherents of the Zaidi branch of Shiite Islam.

The Yemen conflict complicates U.S. policy in the region because the Houthis have the support of Iran. That means the U.S. is fighting alongside Iran in two countries and against it in at least one other. "We finally figured out a way to fight a proxy war against ourselves," is how comedian Jon Stewart put it. "Now we're just punching ourselves in the dick."

But the previously unreported intention of the Iraqi militias to travel to Iraq and battle the U.S.-backed coalition takes the contradiction to new heights. Shiite paramilitary forces keen on fighting in Yemen say innocent Shiites are being slaughtered there by Saudi Arabia, which makes their war one and the same. On Monday, Arab coalition airstrikes killed dozens of people in a camp for those displaced in the country's north, according to the International Organization for Migration.

The White House declined to comment on the development.

A member of the Iran-backed Shiite militia known as the Badr Organization eyes a large hole in the ground caused by an IED in Tikrit on March 26.

Abu Ahmed, 33, who fights with the Iranian proxy militia Kata'ib Sayyed al-Shuhada near the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, where ISIS still vies for control, said men from his fighting force have already begun signing up to fight. One of the group’s leaders told the fighters that there would be a chance, very soon, to go to Yemen, according to Ahmed. He said his brother immediately added his name to the growing list.

“We’re ready, 100 percent, to go and defend the Houthis,” said 35-year-old Wissam, a militiaman with the Peace Brigades. “The battle is against the Shia. It’s a sectarian war. We’ll never forget our brothers in Yemen.”

Wissam, currently in Baghdad, said he was one of many who had already spoken to their leaders about heading to Yemen. He added that he might be able to somehow coordinate with people in Lebanon, where Iran also has a strong influence.

“We have armies waiting for the call,” said Abu Kumael. “We’re getting ready in the next few days to prepare to defend our brothers in Yemen.”

Tens of thousands of Iraqi Shiites joined forces last summer when the country’s top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani issued a call to arms to fight off the extremist group closing in on the capital and other major Iraqi cities. Now, Kumael said he expects the Marjaya -- Iraq’s leading religious authority -- to soon call on Iraqi Shiites to join the fight in Yemen.

While many Iraqi Shiites view the militias as heroes for taking security into their own hands when the state could not, thousands of Sunnis who insist they are being pushed out of their homes, detained and killed, say the fighters are nothing but sectarian bullies.

The U.S. has an uneasy relationship with the Shiite militias. They are one of the few solid fighting forces capable of taking on ISIS, whose reach extends close to Baghdad. But they also have until relatively recently been openly battling U.S. forces and shelling the Green Zone, home to U.S. diplomats and advisers in Baghdad. They are under varying degrees of control by the Iranian government, which also has broad sway over the Iraqi government.

Last week, U.S. officials pushed for the militias to take a backseat in operations against ISIS, while the militias claimed to be stepping aside to protest U.S. entrance into the battle.

Iran’s sway is obvious in Baghdad, where posters for Iranian-advised, paid, and armed militias adorn the city. The face of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is seen plastered to checkpoints and billboards everywhere.

Meanwhile Iran, the U.S., and its five negotiating partners are approaching Tuesday's deadline for the political framework of an agreement to curb Iran’s nuclear program. Saudi Arabia has been skeptical of the negotiations, fearful of the geopolitical implications of U.S. rapprochement with Iran. Its government and other Arab nations over theweekend announced they would create a joint military force in the Middle East.

Sophia Jones and an Iraqi journalist reported from Baghdad. Ryan Grim and Jessica Schulberg contributed reporting from Washington.

By Stephen Eisenhammer

NOVA FRIBURGO, Brazil (Reuters) - Two renegade Catholic bishops plan to consecrate a new generation of bishops to spread their ultra-traditionalist movement called "The Resistance" in defiance of the Vatican, one of them said at a remote monastery in Brazil.

French Bishop Jean-Michel Faure, himself consecrated only two weeks ago by the Holocaust-denying British Bishop Richard Williamson, said the new group rejected Pope Francis and what it called his "new religion" and would not engage in a dialogue with Rome until the Vatican turned back the clock.

Williamson and Faure, who were both excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church when the former made the latter a bishop without Vatican approval, are ex-members of a larger dissenting group that has been a thorn in Rome's side for years.

Their splinter movement is tiny - Faure did not give an estimate of followers - but the fact they plan to consecrate bishops is important because it means their schism can continue as a rebel form of Catholicism.

"We follow the popes of the past, not the current one," Faure, 73, told reporters on Saturday at Santa Cruz Monastery in Nova Friburgo, in the mountain jungle 140 km (87 miles) inland from Rio de Janeiro.

"It is likely that in maybe one or two years we will have more consecrations," he said, adding there were already two candidates to be promoted to bishop's rank.

The monastery had said Williamson would ordain a priest there at the weekend but he was not seen by reporters, and clergy said it was impossible to talk to him. Faure ordained the priest himself.

Asked what the new group called itself, Faure said: "I think we can call ourselves Roman Catholic first, secondly St Pius X, and now ... the Resistance."

SPLINTER OFF THE SSPX

The Society of St Pius X (SSPX) is a larger ultra-traditionalist group that was excommunicated in 1988 when its founder consecrated four new bishops, including Williamson, despite warnings from the Vatican not to do so.

It rejected the modernizing reforms of the 1962-65 Second Vatican Council and stuck with Catholicism's old Latin Mass after the Church switched to simpler liturgy in local languages.

Former Pope Benedict readmitted the four SSPX bishops to the Catholic fold in 2009, but the SSPX soon expelled Williamson because of an uproar over his Holocaust denial.

In contrast to Benedict, Pope Francis pays little attention to the SSPX ultra-traditionalists, who claim to have a million followers around the world and a growing number of new priests at a time that Rome faces priest shortages. Their remaining three bishops have no official status in the Catholic Church.

Faure said the Resistance group would not engage in dialogue with Rome, as the SSPX has done. "We resist capitulation, we resist conciliation of St Pius X with Rome," he said.

Faure said he was not sure what it would take for Rome to return to its old traditions but conflict could be a catalyst.

"If there is another World War ... maybe the Church will go back to the way it was before," he said.

The prior of the monastery, Thomas Aquinas, explained the split simply: "The Pope is less Catholic than us."

Under Catholic law, Williamson and Faure are excommunicated from the Church but remain validly consecrated bishops. That means they can ordain priests into their schismatic group and claim to be Catholic, albeit without Vatican approval.

By contrast, women supposedly made priests by dissident Catholic bishops are not validly ordained because Catholic law reserves the priesthood only for men.

(Reporting by Stephen Eisenhammer; Editing by Tom Heneghan and Richard Chang)

By Sharon Bernstein

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) - Two black women who said their hairstyles made them targets for airport security pat-downs said on Thursday the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) had agreed to stop singling out women for screening based solely on their "sisterlocks."

Malaika Singleton, a neuroscientist based in Sacramento, said she was on her way to London last year for an academic conference on dementia when a TSA agent at Los Angeles International Airport began pulling and squeezing her hair.

"I was going through the screening procedures like we all do, and after I stepped out of the full body scanner, the agent said, 'OK, now I'm going to check your hair,'" Singleton said on Thursday.

The same thing happened when she passed through the Minneapolis airport on her way back home, Singleton said.

She contacted the American Civil Liberties Union, and it turned out that one of the lawyers there, a black woman who also wears the tiny, stylized form of dreadlocks known as sisterlocks had the same experience - twice.

Novella Coleman, the ACLU attorney, had already filed a complaint about the practice in 2012, to no avail, Coleman said on Thursday. She filed another complaint based on Singleton's experience, and on Thursday the two women said that the agency had agreed to conduct anti-discrimination training sessions with its officers to avoid what they called racial profiling of hair.

"The first time I was on a trip with colleagues, some other attorneys who were white and Latina," said Novella Coleman, the ACLU lawyer who filed the complaint.

"The woman said, 'I need to search your hair now,' and she just started grabbing my hair and squeezing it from top to bottom," Coleman said. Her white and Latina colleagues underwent no such searches, she said.

Asked the reason for the search, Coleman said she was given a variety of explanations. One officer said all passengers with hair extensions were searched, but Coleman wasn't wearing extensions. Another said people are searched if they have "abnormalities" in their hair, she said.

Other black women have had similar experiences, she said.

David A. Castelveter, a spokesman for the TSA, said the agency had no immediate comment on Thursday night.

Coleman said it was not immediately clear what kind of training the TSA planned for its staff.

(This story corrects first paragraph to Transportation Security Administration instead of Transportation Safety Administration)

(Reporting by Sharon Bernstein; Editing by Sandra Maler)